Trump says he wants to meet North Korea's Kim, during South Korean president's visit
Since Trump's inauguration in January, Kim has ignored Trump's repeated calls to revive the direct diplomacy he pursued during his 2017-2021 term in office.
"I'd like to meet him this year," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office as he welcomed South Korea's new president, Lee Jae Myung, to the White House. "I look forward to meeting with Kim Jong Un in the appropriate future."
Despite clinching a trade deal in July that spared South Korean exports harsher US tariffs, the two sides continue to wrangle over nuclear energy, military spending, and details of a trade deal that included US$350 billion in promised South Korean investments in the United States.
Since Trump's January inauguration, Kim has ignored Trump's repeated calls to revive the direct diplomacy he pursued during his 2017-2021 term in office, which produced no deal to halt North Korea's nuclear programme.
As the leaders met, the liberal South Korean encouraged Trump to engage with North Korea.
"I hope you can bring peace to the Korean Peninsula, the only divided nation in the world, so that you can meet with Kim Jong Un, build a Trump World in North Korea so that I can play golf there, and so that you can truly play a role as a world-historical peacemaker," Lee said, speaking in Korean.
South Korea's economy relies heavily on the US, with Washington underwriting its security with troops and nuclear deterrence. Trump has called Seoul a "money machine" that takes advantage of American military protection.
DIFFICULT ISSUES
Trump is pressing South Korea on the trade deal they already reached and over a number of issues related to the countries' military alliance.
He also said he would raise with Lee "intel" he had received about investigations in that country that he said targeted churches and a military base. The White House did not respond to a request for more information.
Earlier this month, Seoul police raided Sarang Jeil Church, headed by evangelical preacher Jun Kwang-hoon, who led protests in support of ousted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.
The police were investigating pro-Yoon activists who stormed a court in late January after it extended Yoon's detention over his December attempt to declare martial law.
In July, prosecutors investigating Yoon's actions served a search warrant on the Korean part of a military base jointly operated with the United States. South Korean officials have said that US troops and materials were not subject to the search.
Members of Korea's far-right movement, especially evangelical Christians and supporters of Yoon, see the ex-president as the subject of communist persecution.
Asked if he would reduce US troop numbers there to give the US more flexibility in the region, Trump told reporters, "I don't want to say that now," but that maybe South Korea should give the US ownership of the "land where we have the big fort," a possible reference to Camp Humphreys, a US Army garrison in South Korea.
Before the meeting, Lee told reporters it would be difficult for Seoul to accept US demands to adopt "flexibility" over US military stationed in South Korea, a reference to the issue of using US military for a wider range of operations, including China-related threats.
Lee wants to chart a balanced path of cooperation with the US, while avoiding antagonising South Korea's top trade partner, Beijing.
As he headed to the US, Lee sent a special delegation to Beijing, which delivered a message calling for normalised ties with China.
BJ Kim, affiliate professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, believes the meeting was a success for Lee, as both sides avoided public disagreements on trade and security.
"A lot of effort went into preparing Lee for a smooth introductory meeting, getting to know Trump and building goodwill with him," he said, noting that the South Korean president avoided the theatrical confrontations that dominated a February visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a May visit from South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
"It turned out to be extremely friendly from the beginning to the end. There were a lot of thorny issues that they could have talked about, but they didn't touch upon those kinds of thorny issues."
On the possibility of Trump meeting the North Korea leader, Kim noted that while Washington and Seoul have expressed interest, the decision ultimately rests with Pyongyang.
"The way the North Korean government's rhetoric has played out so far, they're not very warm to that idea overall - not specifically about the invitation itself, but they have not been saying nice things. So we'll have to wait and see," he said.
The South Korean president told reporters some officials in Washington were calling for changes to the trade deal. Lee will highlight some of South Korea's expected US investments when he visits a shipyard in Philadelphia owned by the country's Hanwha Group on Tuesday.
Trump is expected to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea that will run from Oct 30 to Nov 1.
